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Friday, April 14, 2017

Congressman Markwayne Mullin of Oklahoma's 2nd District has been in hot water over the past week for comments he made at a recent town hall in Jay, saying gems like...

“You say you pay for me to do this. Bullcrap. I pay for myself. I paid enough taxes before I got there and continue to through my company to pay my own salary. This is a service. No one here pays me to go.”

and

“I’m just saying this is a service for me, not a career, and I thank God this is not how I make my living.”

and

“I’m paying more taxes inside my company and personally than I’ll ever receive from Congress.”

A spokesperson for Mullin told the Tulsa World, “The congressman reiterates in the video that his work as the representative of the Second District of Oklahoma is a service. His aspiration is to be a career legislator and not a career politician. He is not, nor does he ever aspire to be, a career politician. His priority will always be to serve his constituents to the best of his ability.” [emphasis mine]

Let's remember that Mullin campaigned in 2012 on a pledge to serve no more than three two-year terms (six years) in office. In an August 1, 2011, article from the AP, Mullin told reporter Sean Murphy, "I don't want to be up there (in Washington) and become part of the problem. If we can't accomplish anything in six years, it's a waste of time anyway." Sounds like that's not the case anymore, at least according to his spokesperson.

In 2016, US Term Limits, the leading advocacy organization and the group with the pledge Mullin signed, slammed Mullin for failing to follow through on his commitment to co-sponsor term limits legislation, as well as his public hedging on keeping his pledge in 2018.